A challenge for any organization is the maintenance of person data for all persons that come into contact with the organization including employees and others. The challenge is compounded when the organization is large with multiple locations and multiple legacy systems that are in place to track different components of person data. Issues related to security, employment status, payroll and taxes are a few of the many areas that make person data authentication and management important.
Most organizations have contact with several “person types” including employees, non-employees, dependents of employees, visitors, temporary employees and contractors. Data for each person type may be input and maintained in a specific system for issues pertaining to the particular person type. For example, systems devoted to maintaining data related to employees are common. These systems however may not offer the ability to track and maintain data for non-employees or visitors. Further, organizations with legacy systems or systems in place in more than one location may not have a capability to share data between systems.
It is also true that the relationship between a person and organization can change over time such that the person type changes. For example, a contract employee can become a full time salaried employee. An employee can transfer from one location to another. A terminated employee can attempt to apply at another location of the organization. Each of these examples demonstrates the need for a system that will track all person types and provide a universal system for maintaining person data throughout the organization.
Further, data integrity is an issue when an organization relies on more than one system to maintain person data. Many organizations maintain several systems for managing person data. While each prior art system serves its own specialized purpose, together they create redundant data and in some instances inaccurate data. For example a person identified in one system may not match data in another system due to a misspelling of the name or a change in address. Therefore there is a need for a system to authenticate persons to an organization that will work across system platforms including legacy systems.
A related issue is the method for uniquely identifying and managing person data. Typical prior art systems require a unique tax identifier such as a social security number to uniquely identify an individual and therefore authenticate the person to the organization. A unique identifier may not be available, if for example the person is a non-employee or from a foreign country where no social security or similar tax identifier exists. Therefore, there is a need for a system that will authenticate a person to an organization that does not require a tax identifier or other assigned number for purpose of authentication.
Another important issue is the implementation of business rules to guide the modification of person data for the entire organization. In order to maintain integrity of the person data, certain rules must be in place to limit the ability of a person to input or modify core person data. This core person data, including name and other identifying information such as birth date, should be protected throughout all systems for the organization. For example, someone accessing person data through one system intended for limited application should not be able to destroy core person data created on another system. Further, the system intended to manage core person data should have greater freedom to modify this data.
Therefore, there is a need for a system to establish and manage a repository for global and commonly used core person data. A system is required that will authenticate person data to the entire organization while allowing for continued use of various prior art systems including legacy systems in place to accommodate specific requirements such as personnel systems. This improved system should not require a social security number or other uniquely assigned number for authentication.
For a more complete understanding of the invention, its objects and advantages refer to the following specification and to the accompanying drawings.